Happy (Belated) St. Patty's!

Couldn't get the shirt captured in full, but it says "Kiss Me, I'm Cute" - and I did, all day long!

Cruisin'

Today, I mourn the end of an era. Reid is moving on from "Swaddlers New Baby Diapers" to "Cruisers Diapers." That's means he's no longer a new baby. *sniff* That means he's getting bigger and he's moving around a lot more (the Cruisers diapers have some sort of special flex that allows for better movement blahblahblah).

So while I'm glad he's sleeping better and crying less and more easily entertained these days, I'm not too excited about this whole getting bigger and moving around a lot more thing,'cause that means a) mama's back hurts from lifting the boy and b) mama has to move around a lot more too, and mama doesn't like that. Why am I talking about myself in the third person?

He's progressed from scooting to all-out crawling and after a long period of wobbly sitting followed by the inevitable topple and head bonk, he's now sitting well unsupported and moves comfortably back and forth between sitting and crawling.

I've really gotta keep an eye on him these days. A few weeks ago, I was getting him ready for bed and I set him down in his crib and walked across the room to do something. A moment later I saw his nearly-bald head bobbing out of the corner of my eye and turned to see him standing at the edge of the crib, about to launch himself over the side to get to me. With a big smile on his face, naturally.

Now, I should mention that prior to this moment, I had not seen him stand, nor do anything that came close to standing or pulling himself up. (This was before he was even sitting well.) Leave it to Reid to pick the most dangerous place to practice this skill. (He has an affinity for dangerous situations - more on that later.) So I screamed "TE-ED!!!!" and we had an emergency mattress-lowering pow-wow.

Good thing I caught him trying that move while I was in the room. I now walk into this each morning and after naps:

He's now perfected the pull-up operation and the wobbly stand. Which is so cute.

But which affords him many new opportunities to bring harm upon himself. Here he is (in a new Cruisers diaper) pulling up on the bathtub.

I had to stop the camera and snatch him up before he attempted to launch himself into the bathtub, headfirst, as I have seen him attempt this maneuver several times lately. The bathtub seems to be one of his favorite places to practice his new moves, probably because it's just the right height and provides the excitement of bath toys and other stuff just over the ledge.

So now he's onto cruising along the couch (or bathtub) and from one piece of furniture to the next where possible. There have been many head bonks - and I expect there will be many more - but a cuddle and a kiss seem to do the trick and he's back on the move!

Note to Self

It is a good idea to wait at least an hour after baby's mealtime to play the flying baby game. Unless you want a milk, oatmeal and banana facial and hair treatment.

Farewell, Toothless Grin

I finally captured the boy's new little chompers on film:

Obviously, he's pretty excited about them too!

Just in case you missed them...

there they are!

The Reid Report

Reid is feeling much better, but still not completely dried up after going on two weeks of the snots. He still wakes up a lot coughing in the night and I'm still on clean-up duty after every sneeze. We've both gotten a little better with the nasal aspirator, but it still doesn't seem to be very effective. Perhaps it's providing some relief as Reid sort of tolerates it now. Or maybe he just figured out that it's a whole lot easier to stay relatively still and deal with it going up his nostril than struggling against the inevitable and getting it jabbed all over his face as he writhes around.

Other goings on in the world of Reid include increasing baby babbles. Sounds from the Hamilton household: AAAAAAAAGH! Aaaaiiieeeeee! Mmmma. Mamamamama. Gah! Dadadadada. Bababababababa. Aaaaah! Aaaaaa! AAAAAAHHHH! WAAAAAAAH! Blah. Blah. Blalablaba. Ted is certain that he's heard him say Mbah a Moute (the name of a former UCLA basketball player) a few times. Could be...

Despite the temptation to believe that mamamamama and dadadadada actually holds meaning for him, I think it is completely random at this point. But very, very cute.

His two teeth continue coming in strong. I've been trying to capture them on film, but given that he's usually so mesmerized by the appearance of the camera that he just stares at it in awe rather than smiling in delight, it's been a little challenging. He's also growing some hair, but very slowly. Which is fine with me as I like my babies a little on the bald side.

With all the aspirating and wipeddowns, I haven't done much picture-snapping lately but hope to be back soon with pics of a snot-free baby boy. And a much-loved schnauzer as well!

It Snot Funny

Around 1 o'clock this morning I was summoned by my master (WAAAAAAAAH! Wah!Wah!Wah!). Upon arriving at His Majesty's crib, I discovered the biggest, slimiest, nastiest snot mustache I have ever seen on any human being of any size. In all fairness, I suppose that is probably because I haven't been around many babies and thankfully I think all the grown-ups I know would wipe their own snot mustaches before they got that bad (I mean, at least on their hand or something).

But anyway, I was alarmed to say the least. Then I quickly realized that little Reid has his first cold. Poor little guy. I suppose we (and he) are pretty lucky to have gone 7 months without him getting sick. Now it's time for him to exercise that immune system.

He was up a few times in the night coughing, sneezing, crying... when necessary, I provided a brief wipedown and attempted nasal irrigation, which made him scream like a little girl. All things considered, he's dealing with the discomfort pretty well and was fairly happy all day in spite of the profusion of mucous coming out of his nose.

Anybody know how to clear a babies nasal passages with a nasal aspirator? I keep trying to use one on a very disgruntled and uncooperative Reid, but I can't seem make the thing work at all. I mean, I preface it with a little saline solution spritzer. Then I squeeze the bulb syringe thingie, stick it up one nostril, and release the squeeze... but I just don't seem to be getting a lot out of there, and there is quite obviously a lot up in there. I hate to keep torturing him with it when it is clearly unproductive. But neither one of us is going to get much uninterrupted sleep until those nasal passages get some clearance. So if anybody has had success with this, please enlighten me.

Tonight as I was nursing him before putting him to bed, he pulled back and looked up at me with the saddest eyes and said, "Aaaah ba ba baa baa baaa." I'm pretty sure that means, "I don't feel very good, Mommy." My poor little sick baby.

Scooter

Reid is not quite crawling, but he is increasingly mobile and true crawling is surely imminent. Right now, he is doing a little scooting motion, so his nickname of the week is "Scooter." Here's a little video of him demonstrating his scooting skills as well as his preference for consumer electronics over colorful baby toys.